Internet

Topic: World Transport and Communication · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 7 "Transport and Communication"

Meaning

The Internet is the largest electronic network on Earth. It links computers and phones across the world so that they can share information. It matters because it lets ideas, money and services move almost instantly over any distance. In 2025 about 6 billion people, about three-quarters of humanity, were online [2].

Explanation

How it works: cause → process → result

• Cause: computers joined with telecommunication.
• Information was turned into digital form (numbers a computer can store and send).

• Telephone lines, cables and satellites could then carry this data between computers.

• Process: a network of networks.

• Millions of computers and phones connect to each other.

• Data reaches a far-off place through cables, mobile towers or satellites. Satellite communication means sending signals up to a satellite in space, which sends them back down to a far-off place on Earth.

• Result: cyberspace.

• Cyberspace (the electronic, computerised world of communication over networks such as the World Wide Web (WWW)) appears.
• Neither the sender nor the receiver has to move. A person can go online from an office, a boat or a plane.

How fast it grew

Year	Internet users (world)
1995	under 50 million
2000	about 400 million
2010	over 2 billion
2023	about 5.4 billion
2024	about 5.8 billion (revised) [2]
2025	about 6 billion, about three-quarters of humanity [2]

• More than 240 million people came online in 2025 alone [2].
• NCERT's older, dated box gives about 1,000 million users in over 100 countries.

What it is used for

• E-mail: messages arrive in seconds.
• E-commerce: buying and selling online.
• E-learning: studying online.
• E-governance: getting government services online.
• Global village: an idea from Marshall McLuhan in the 1960s. It says modern communication links the whole world as closely as people in one village.
• The internet, together with TV, radio and fax, made this real.
• NCERT's point is that communication, more than transport, made the world a global village.

What it needs: access and the digital divide

• Digital divide: the gap between people who can use the internet and people who cannot.
• About 2.2 billion people were still offline in 2025, down from 2.3 billion in 2024 [2].
• 96% of offline people live in low- and middle-income countries [2].

Gap (2025)	Share of people online
High-income vs low-income countries	94% vs 23% [2]
Urban vs rural	85% vs 58% [2]
Men vs women	77% vs 71% [2]
Age 15–24 vs everyone else	82% vs 72% [2]

• LEO satellite internet can help close this gap.
• LEO stands for low Earth orbit. It is broadband from large groups of satellites, called constellations, flying a few hundred to about 2,000 km up.
• Because the satellites are close to Earth, the delay between sending and receiving (latency) is low.
• Each satellite covers only a small area, so thousands are needed.

Where it occurs

• World: change in the US share.
• In 1995, 66% of internet users were in the USA. By 2005 this had fallen to 25%.
• Users are now spread across the USA, UK, Germany, Japan, China and India.

• So the internet moved from being mostly American to being worldwide.

• Rich and poor countries: 94% of people are online in high-income countries but only 23% in low-income countries [2].

• India's hard-to-reach areas:
• Laying cable costs too much in the hills, on islands, in the North-East and in Ladakh, and it is not possible for ships at sea.

• LEO broadband can reach these places.

• LEO constellations: Starlink (SpaceX, USA), Eutelsat OneWeb (Europe/UK) and Amazon Kuiper (USA).

• Ukraine: Starlink keeps the war-hit country connected. This shows how much power a foreign private company can have over a country's communication.
• Rules for satellite internet in India:
• IN-SPACe (Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Centre) was set up in the 2020 space reforms under the Department of Space.
• Broadband from foreign satellites can be used in India only after IN-SPACe authorisation [3].
• The DoT (Department of Telecommunications) gave GMPCS (Global Mobile Personal Communication by Satellite) licences to OneWeb India, Jio Satellite Communications and Starlink Satellite Communications [4].
• India began licensing these services in 2025.

Don't confuse with

• Cyberspace: the internet is the physical network of linked computers and phones. Cyberspace is the electronic world of communication that this network creates, as on the WWW.
• World Wide Web (WWW): the WWW is one service that runs on the internet, made of web pages and links. It is not the network itself.
• Geostationary satellite communication (e.g. GSAT): these satellites sit about 36,000 km up, stay fixed over one spot and have a higher delay. They are best for TV, DTH and weather. LEO internet satellites fly a few hundred to about 2,000 km up, move fast across the sky and have a low delay.
• Transport: transport moves goods and people, and its cost rises with distance. The internet moves only information, with no physical movement, so it is the reason the world became a global village.

Prelims Hooks

• Internet users grew from under 50 million (1995) to about 6 billion (2025), about three-quarters of humanity [2].
• The US share of internet users fell from 66% (1995) to 25% (2005).
• ITU 2025: about 2.2 billion people are offline, and 96% of them live in low- and middle-income countries [2].
• Online share in 2025: urban 85% vs rural 58%, and men 77% vs women 71% [2].
• "Global village" comes from Marshall McLuhan (1960s). NCERT credits communication, not transport, with making it real.
• Trap: IN-SPACe (2020) works under the Department of Space, not the DoT [3]. India assigns satellite spectrum (the radio frequencies that carry signals) administratively, not by auction [4].

Mains Points

• Communication has shrunk the world more than transport:
• The internet moves ideas almost instantly, and no one has to travel.
• This powers e-commerce, e-learning and e-governance (GS-I/III).

• Together, these turned McLuhan's "global village" into fact.

• The digital divide is a geographic divide:

• Internet use is 94% in high-income countries but 23% in low-income ones, and 85% in towns but 58% in villages [2].
• In India, the hills, islands, the North-East and Ladakh are costly to reach by cable.

• LEO broadband can bring the internet to these areas (GS-III infrastructure).

• Satellite internet raises questions of sovereignty (a country's control over its own affairs):

• Foreign private constellations, such as Starlink in Ukraine, can shape communication during a conflict.
• India's response:
  • IN-SPACe authorisation [3].
  • DoT licensing [4].
  • Administrative spectrum allocation [4].
  • A single "Satellite-based Telecommunication Service Authorisation" that merges GMPCS and commercial VSAT [5]. VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminal) is a small dish that links an office or remote site to a satellite.

Related concepts

• Cyberspace
• Global village
• Low Earth orbit satellite internet

Read more

• Satellites, the internet and cyberspace